They certainly would have been trying their best to be of service to the Ebyonim (Ebionites), but they very likely were not “The Ebyonim,” per se.

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The immediate following reference and paragraphs are based on the writings of the Roman Pliny the Elder (died c. 79 A.D.) in his Natural History (N’H,V,XV).
However, nany other refrences and hypothesis follow.

Pliny, relates in a few lines that thepossess no money, and had existed for thousands of generations and (quite erroneously) that Essenes do not marry (for in fact they did and do today celebrate life passionately; and as such they happily produced many healthy vegetarian children). Unlike Philo, who did not mention any particular geographical location of the Essenes other than the whole land of Israel, Pliny places them in the Ein Gedi ares, in near proximity to the Dead Sea.

A little later Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 A.D.) with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 A.D.) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 A.D.). Claiming first hand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy[6] alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality and commitment to a strict observance of the Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings.Read more of this post